Cassidy v. Harrelson

1 Colo. App. 458
CourtColorado Court of Appeals
DecidedJanuary 15, 1892
StatusPublished

This text of 1 Colo. App. 458 (Cassidy v. Harrelson) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Colorado Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Cassidy v. Harrelson, 1 Colo. App. 458 (Colo. Ct. App. 1892).

Opinion

Bissell, J.

The facts remove this case largely from the region of dispute and disagreement which generally characterize the decisions concerning the rights of holders of mortgages on chattels. The date, record, and validity of the Harrelson mortgage were either conceded or established, .and the3r gave to the holder of that security an unquestionable and prior lien on the property, unless it was subsequently lost. The mortgage was executed on the 19th day of November, 1888, and recorded in the proper office. It [461]*461was given to secure an indebtedness about which there is no dispute. The finding of the court that all the subsequent mortgagees had knowledge of the existence of this security is abundantly sustained by the record. It only remains to ascertain the legal status of the subsequent lienors. Their position is sharply defined and clearly outlined by the authorities. Cassidy and Lee, who took their security on the 21st day of November, 1888, received it during the life of the Harrelson mortgage, and with full knowledge of its existence. In determining their rights no consideration need to be given to the question of diligence on Harrelson’s part, in taking possession of the property. Since they took their security during the life of the prior mortgage, and with full knowledge of it, they took subject to its lien, and acquired no other or greater rights in the property itself than were possessed by the mortgagor. They were not bona fide purchasers for value, and the mortgage remained valid and binding as against them, and they took subject to its provisions, and acquired only the right of redemption as it inured to the mortgagor. These circumstances dispose of the claim of the intervenors Cassidy and Lee, and as against them the adjudication, that Harrelson had the right of possession, was clearly accurate. Arnold v. Stock, 81 Ill. 407; Cunningham v. The H. O. Nelson Mfg. Co., 17 Brad. 510; The National Bank etc. v. Sprague, 21 N. J. E. 580.

The other mortgages, which were the subjects of the different petitions of intervention, were given at various dates between the 6th of June and the 10th of July, and after the note secured by the Harrelson mortgage had matured. One of the principal contentions on the trial and on the appeal was based on the delay on the part of Harrelson to take possession of the property subsequent to the maturity of his mortgage. Very considerable evidence was introduced on this subject, and he made a strong attempt to show that he had initiated proceedings to get control of the property late in May, and just before the note became due. In the view which the court takes of the law governing the [462]*462case, slight consideration need be given to either of these matters. It is undoubtedly true that the evidence which Harrelson offered to show, the attempt on his part to obtain possession late in May, ought not to have been received, and that it could not have been made the basis of a judgment in his favor. It was in flat contradiction to the averments of his complaint, which stated that the defendant Smith was in possession when he commenced the suit on the 7th of August, more than two months afterwards. He could not, under the well settled rules of pleading, be permitted to make proof against his case as he had laid it. The plaintiffs in error, however, were not harmed by this proceeding, since the court found the fact the other way, and it is not entirely clear that the question is well saved by the record. It is equally true that all the evidence, as well as the finding of the court on the subject of Harrelson’s diligence in obtaining possession of the property after the maturity of his paper, could be eliminated from the record and the judgment still stand. The intervenors are in no position to raise this question of diligence. Whatever may be the general rule requiring the mortgagee, upon the maturity of his paper, to be diligent in acquiring possession of the property if he desires to prevent the accretion of rights by creditors and bona fide purchasers for value, he is under no such obligation as against subsequent lienors who have taken their security with no other consideration passing between the parties at the time of its execution than the pre-existing debt which the instrument is designed to protect. This question has received exhaustive consideration by the supreme court of the United States, and, in an opinion which reviews the authorities generally, they declare the law to be that the holders of these subsequent securities hold the goods open to “ the same equities and exceptions as to title ” as could be asserted against them if they were in the hands of the mortgagor. It is laid down as a general principle, that to bring the holder of the security within the law which defines the rights of a creditor, or a purchaser for a valuable consideration, there [463]*463must be some new consideration moving between the parties, and not merely a new security given for an old debt. Peoples Saving Bank v. Bates, 120 U. S. 556; De Lancey v. Stearns, 66 N. Y. 157; Jones v. Graham, 77 N. Y. 628; Atchison v. Graham, 14 Colo. 217; McKee et al. v. The Bassick Mining Co., 8 Colo. 392; Gerow v. Castello, 11 Colo. 560; Tiffany v. Warren et al., 37 Barb. 571; Boyd v. Beck, 29 Ala. 704; Paine, Kendall & Co. et al. v. Mason et al., 7 Ohio St. 198.

It is quite probable that the decisions in this state have gone to the limit of the most advanced authorities in defining the rights and duties of the parties to such instruments. The cases of Knox v. McFarren, 4 Colo. 586, and Merchants Bank v. McClellan, 9 Colo. 608, which are relied on by the plaintiffs in error, are not in conflict with the rule here announced. It is quite true that a pre-existing debt is, under the law of this state, a good consideration for the transfer of property, and likewise may be a good consideration for a lien upon chattels. But neither of the cases referred to call for an expression of the limitation here applied to the doctrine, and rendered necessary by the proof, and it will not be assumed that the court, in stating a general principle, necessarily intended to exclude exceptions which are so well supported by the current of eminent authority.

The decision in Brereton v. Bennett, 15 Colo. 254, does not antagonize the present conclusion. The supreme court has undoubtedly held, following the line of the Illinois authorities, that as against either creditors or Iona fide purchasers for value, a matured mortgage is fraudulent per se unless the rights thereby acquired have been asserted by the assumption of possession of the property. In the light of this principle what the court said in that case,—“ whatever may have been his rights had he acted promptly, they were forfeited by this delay, and the mortgage became, in law, fraudulent as to other mortgage creditors,” would undoubtedly be true in the case of a contest between two mortgagees where the subsequent mortgage was based upon a new con[464]*464sideration, and given after the maturity of the original mortgage, and without knowledge of its existence, on property in possession of the mortgagor. And the quotation upon which so much reliance was placed was undoubtedly uttered by the court without reference to particular facts resembling those presented by this controversy.

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Related

People's Savings Bank v. Bates
120 U.S. 556 (Supreme Court, 1887)
De Lancey v. . Stearns
66 N.Y. 157 (New York Court of Appeals, 1876)
Jones v. . Graham
77 N.Y. 628 (New York Court of Appeals, 1879)
Tiffany v. Warren
37 Barb. 571 (New York Supreme Court, 1862)
Knox v. McFarran
4 Colo. 586 (Supreme Court of Colorado, 1879)
McKee v. Bassick Mining Co.
8 Colo. 392 (Supreme Court of Colorado, 1885)
Merchants' Bank v. McClelland
9 Colo. 608 (Supreme Court of Colorado, 1886)
Gerow v. Castello
11 Colo. 560 (Supreme Court of Colorado, 1888)
Atchison v. Graham
14 Colo. 217 (Supreme Court of Colorado, 1890)
Brereton v. Bennett
15 Colo. 254 (Supreme Court of Colorado, 1890)
Arnold v. Stock
81 Ill. 407 (Illinois Supreme Court, 1876)

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Bluebook (online)
1 Colo. App. 458, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/cassidy-v-harrelson-coloctapp-1892.